How to politely change estate agents

[DreamsAreFading]

Our house has been up for sale since August. We have had to do all of the chasing with our agent and we haven’t had a single viewing. We have dropped the price by a lot even though it was priced the same as other similar properties at the start. We are long out of the 4 week contract with them. The house is at a give away price now - very little over what we paid for it 18 years ago, and we can’t afford to drop the price any further. The only thing we can think to do is fire the agent. But how do I go about that without causing offence? How do you approach another agent without looking flaky? Do we approach another agent before we fire this one?
Thanks.

This estate agent promised the world with marketing and delivered nothing. It’s such a deflating feeling. It feels like a waste of time. If we didn’t need to move I would just forget about it, but we really need to move.

Good advice, how much you paid for a house is how much YOU decided to pay, it doesnt mean someone else will want (or be able) to pay this amount or more, especially now that borrowing costs are much higher. I would normally agree that long time on the market = Overpriced, but in this market I think we are in a new paradigm where people just dont want to borrow any more because they have seen how interest rates can catch you out if you have large debts.

Did you say priced at what you paid 8 years ago, or 18 years ago?

We paid slightly under asking price when we bought which was the value the bank agreed it was worth when we took out the mortgage. We are in an uncertain market now I think. When I look at houses that have sold online there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to what people are choosing to buy.

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Interest rates (base rate) back then was around 4%? People can borrow less now, that could be part of the problem.

The fact that it's a FTB house is key I think. I know you don't want to provide a link/location but is your area somewhere that attracts people from bigger cities/towns where their salaries are likely to be higher? Or do most people tend to live and work locally?

If the latter, how does your price compare to what a FTB looking to buy in your area is likely to earn (look at salary multipliers as well as monthly mortgage payments). This will give an idea if your price is close to what FTBs can afford or if it's likely to be something with the house/agent. Unfortunately I think areas that people don't generally relocate to are going to be hit hardest because higher interest rates mean what people can afford to borrow is much more closely tied to their actual earnings than before.

There is part of me that thinks the estate agent knows a friend/family member who wants it for nothing and is deliberately withholding viewers to make us drop the price. But they wouldn’t be allowed to do that, would they?

Check your contract and try different agent.

Wished I'd insisted we change - they were an active hindrance to the sale we got in end.

We are a town that has a lot of people buying from a big city because the prices here are significantly lower. The problem is they buy up the houses in the best parts of town that are twice the price of ours because the houses are twice the price again in their own city.
It could be to do with borrowing power though because the local people tend to live in the FTB houses and it’s a real mixed bag of earning potential here.

No idea if they could or would do that TBH, if it was proved it could be costly for their business? Are you using PropertyLog to see what other sellers of similar properties are doing? I think you also have to look at economic reality, when you bought interest rates were at about 4% now they are over 5%, you would think that breaking even should be doable but you need to monitor how much other sellers of similar are dropping prices by.

You’d be amazed ( or maybe not) what estate agents will do. We once offered asking price on a flat and it was rejected. This was at a time when an asking price offer was like gold dust. We had nothing to sell either.

It became apparent that the agent was saving it for a mate, so that’s the offer that was accepted. Then the agent’s mate lost his job and the deal was off. He came back to us and I’m sure you can imagine our response.

I’ve found smaller local agents a better bet than the larger regional or national ones. The last time we sold, it was through an agent with six local branches. The sale was managed by one agent, who took photos, did viewings, followed up everything and really knew our house. He sold it at the beginning of December in a tricky market.

EAs can and will do whatever they like to sell to their mates or obstruct viewers from getting through your door. It's only when they receive an offer that they have a legal obligation to put that forward to you.

Because my life isn't nearly tedious enough right now, I watch quite a lot of estate agent shows on a semi regular basis. One of the common themes coming through in the last few months is 'your people really need to be pushing extras because our sales numbers are down and the bottom line is not going to look good otherwise' (ergo, job losses will start to happen). Their extras may include: getting the seller to do an EPC through their recommended person, getting the buyer to use their conveyancer, their mortgage broker, their surveyors. Only accepting viewings from a buyer who also has a house to sell (so bolsters what they have on their books).

I'm not saying your EA is refusing to let anyone view who says they don't want to use them for any of the above services, but it IS a thing that happens. They get quite sizeable commission from all of the above, and that will bolster their 2023 commission figures quite quickly (bear in mind they could be waiting 4-6 months for a sales commission to come through).

Sadly, I think you might just be in a perfect storm of wrong timing: the post-summer house buying boom didn't happen this year, now it's getting to the time of year when people won't really be looking because nobody can now really logistically move before Christmas, so who wants to have the stress of dealing with a purchase and potentially ruining their own xmas if things start falling apart between now and January. Also, your EA doesn't sound great. Plus you said several others have sold recently, so maybe that's used up all the local buying pool who can afford homes like yours, for the time being.

But having read your additional posts on here, I'd say the primary problem is your house is a FTB house in a market where 'the number of FTBs calling us about mortgages has dropped off a cliff edge' - recent mortgage broker anecdotal stories.

I’m not thinking of doing that but if I read right you think that you’ll have to sell it for the same price you paid 18 years ago?

Something is very seriously wrong.

If you give me a link I’ll work it out otherwise I don’t know.

It’s called “bottom drawing” - they put it in the bottom draw and don’t push it / or put off buyers.

They do it more than you might like to think.

Most EAs and their BTL mates will be trying to offload property now, not buy more IMO, I dont think "bottom drawing" is the case here, it is just that borrowing costs went back to normal very suddenly that`s all.

Interest rates were 4% when the OP bought the property, they are over 5% now, there are areas of the UK where house prices never recovered after the 2008 crash, even with the interest rate bailout.

With regards to your 4 week contract with them, you may also have a notice period so you're still in contract with them until the end of the notice period. Which is fine if you're not going to remarket until after Christmas! Check the contract.

Just fire them
No need to feel bad or be overly polite - just factual and minimal.

I would say that my place is currently overvalued by 10-20% or so using the online valuation tools.

I believe its actually worth now about 10-20% above peak market price in 2007, nearly all that growth came from 2018 onwards.

2 bed flats in my area are selling at the same or lower than their 2004 new build purchase price.

House price inflation is a lot more limited in the midlands and north than the south of england.

I hadn’t heard of PropertyLog. Thanks for that tip!

Oh my goodness, I was thinking the stress was making me paranoid, but it could be a reality then? That’s awful that they can be that sneaky.

@KievLoverTwo I think you’re right. We have missed the selling boat, for this year at least. Our estate agent has tried to push the extra services on us, so it’s interesting you say that is a ploy to get their commission up.
I think you are also right about the problem is it’s a FTB house.

There’s actually a name for it? I suppose estate agents have a bad reputation for a reason. In some ways I hope that’s what has happened because it might mean we will get some viewings with another agent.

It's depressing that bottom drawing has a name.

Yes, the commission based selling other services is a very real thing in the current market. The number of house sales is currently 100,000 properties down on the last comparable, non-boom year.

I definitely think you need to switch agent, and I am not sure it will be advantageous of you to relist immediately, but to remove the absence of any doubt whatsoever, I think you should get someone to mystery shop and even view your house. You need to see if there are obstructions to getting through the door. If there are not, FTB affordability is your primary issue, so you need to have a think around either waiting a bit longer, or maybe downgrading the size of your next house, I guess.